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General Synod Update from the UCC Web Site.

SYNOD CELEBRATES UCC'S 40TH BIRTHDAY WITH HYMNS, RAP, AND
RECONCILIATION

Also:
Honoring Valerie Russell 
Paul Sherry accepts nomination 
Synod urges landmine ban 

Contact: 
William C. Winslow 
UCC Office of Communication 
July 6, 1997 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - How will folks remember the 40th anniversary of the
United Church of Christ? By their ears if they were in shouting
distance of Columbus, Ohio. 

Sunday afternoon the huge convention center rocked with - you name
it - spirituals, jazz, Latin American/Caribbean rhythms, traditional
hymns, and what is probably a first for any denomination ... religious
rap. 

"Surely God is with us this day," said President Paul H. Sherry while
welcoming a celebration-inclined audience of some 2,500 delegates and
visitors from Ohio, northern Kentucky and West Virginia. 

Most assuredly God was with the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, 15
young women and men whose shimmering voices filled the hall with the
sweet sound of gospel. Their selections ranged from the fast-paced
"Rise, Shine, for Thy Light is a-Comin'" to the languid sophisticated
harmonies of "Deep River" and the coolly evocative "Steal Away to
Jesus." 

>From the American South to south of the border was nothing more than
the wailing of a wooden flute, a modern version of a 500-year-old
Andean instrument. Spanish folk music flooded the air with the sounds
of guitars of various sizes, big and little flutes, rattles made from
bamboo and other percussion instruments fashioned from materials
native to the jungle. The musical group, Khenany, from Mexico, easily
shifted from ethnic music to hymns from the UCC's "New Century
Hymnal." 

Then it hit. Everyone was stunned. Forty years of the history of the
United Church zipped by on the big screen in four minutes, accompanied
by a rapper's machine gun-like delivery of a chanted text that managed
to cover all of the important events in the life of the church over
four decades. But if you blinked, you missed a year. Someone in the
audience murmured that the Office of Communication had done an
incredible job using a medium more apt to be understood by those under
40 than over 40.

Before anyone could react, however, the music segued into live jazz,
and the choir for the worship service entered the hall from opposite
directions swinging and rocking to the beat. 

"Dream on sweet United Church of Christ ... this lovely, brave, messy
denomination we call the UCC," exhorted the anniversary preacher, the
Rev. Robin R. Meyers, pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church,
Oklahoma City. "If you think it's hard to log into America Online
these days, just imagine what it's like to be God, trying to get
through to us." 

The audience loved it, even when he good-naturedly skewered the UCC.
"Look at you, all you politically-correct, peace and justice groupies
trying to save the world, divvying up everybody's wealth but your own,
getting together like sheep to pass resolutions against the wolves.
You think you can break down the brick wall of injustice by throwing
holy light bulbs against it. Dream on." 

Dream on, the cynics say, to which Meyers responds, "Thank you very
much, I think we will." 

They gave him a standing ovation. There were other images, like the
sea of green paper leaves everyone waved during the offering, which
raised $13,589 for scholarships for African-American women. The
scholarship fund honors Valerie Russell, the late executive of the UCC
Office for Church in Society. 

One of the dreams was reconciliation with the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ). In a symbolic gesture to plug a hole in the
disunity of the body of Christ, ministers of the two churches
embraced, acknowledging a common communion cup and shared ministry
while exchanging the symbols of the ordained ministry: the stole,
chalice and the Bible. In an emotional ritual symbolic of their
ordinations, they laid hands on each others' heads to affirm the
"reconciliation" of the ordained ministry of the two partner churches.
"For the Healing of the Nations," the assembly responded in song. 

Happy 40th birthday United Church of Christ. Dream on, because right
now is no time to stop dreaming. 

SYNOD REMEMBERS VALERIE RUSSELL, FIGHTER FOR JUSTICE 

Contact: William C. Winslow 
UCC Office of Communication 
July 6, 1997 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Who was Valerie Russell? 

Some sniffles, a cough or two and the dabbing of eyes with tissues
were a witness that many in the hushed Greater Columbus Convention
Center Saturday night knew exactly who she was. And then she popped up
on the giant TV, bigger than life, to tell her own story to the
delegates at General Synod. 

"My father thought I would go to college and become a leader of some
sort," she said, regally seated in her "justice jeep," a motorized
wheelchair she used after a stroke. "My mother believed the best I
could do was to avoid being a servant or domestic and work in a
five-and-ten-cent store as the first black salesperson." 

Valerie went to college. "One of my big claims to fame in college was
to back into Martin Luther King with a chair when he came to speak." 

Valerie saw life in a different mode. "We have this notion that we
always have to be on top of things, to always have the answer to every
question, or if not all the answers, you have the ingredients to mount
up on the wings of eagles and find those answers. I don't think human
life is like that." 

She talked about why she took the job as executive director of the UCC
Office for Church in Society. "As a woman and a layperson, I am still
marginal. One of the reasons I took this job is that women's voices
and laypersons' voices need to be heard." 

Valerie also shared her unique philosophy of life. "I didn't live in a
kind of world where there was no hope. And, therefore, I had an
alternative to despair." 

The Office for Church in Society then honored Valerie Russell with
their annual Just Peace Award. And then the ceremony ended with an
eloquent prayer from Bernice Powell Jackson, executive director of the
UCC Commission for Racial Justice, beginning with the words, "We just
want to say, Thank you, God.'" 

During Sunday afternoon worship, church members gave $13,589 to the
Valerie E. Russell Scholarship Fund for African-American Women. 

Valerie E. Russell died Feb. 23, 1997, of a heart attack. 

QUOTES OF THE DAY:

"That rap video was one of the finest pieces I've ever seen at a
Synod, and I'm a life long UCCer. But, more important, it helped a
whole new generation of UCCers catch a vision of how important the
last 40 years have been, so they will be able to carry on the same
crucial social justice agenda. It was incredibly powerful. And, it was
cool!" 
-- The Rev. Laurie Hafner, Synod registrar 

"I loved the way that video was continuous. It was such a smooth flow
that I couldn't tell that the video had stopped and action had started
on the floor until I glanced left and saw the choir." 
-- The Rev. Bill Land, Freeman Avenue UCC, Cincinnati 

"A friend of mine - and this is the gospel truth - he told me 'I and
my family have been having trouble with immigrants since we first came
to this country.'" 
-- The Rev. Robin R. Meyers, Senior Minister, Mayflower Congregational
Church, Oklahoma City 

OTHER SYNOD ACTIONS:

On Sunday night, General Synod also: 

Heard Dr. Paul H. Sherry accept nomination for a second term as UCC
President. "I will seek to be ever attentive to God's holy Word; I
will ground my ministry in the Gospel of Jesus Christ," he told the
delegates. The Rev. Doris Powell also accepted re-nomination as
director of finance and treasurer. Both elections are scheduled for
Monday. 

Adopted a resolution "affirming democratic principles in a global
economy." "In the early 1990s," the resolution's background statement
says, "the economy added almost 3 million high-paying executive,
managerial and professional jobs and almost 1,400,000 low-wage jobs,
while almost 2,600,000 middle-income jobs were destroyed." As a
"resolution of witness," it required a two-thirds majority to pass. 

Called on Congress to close the "School of the Americas" - a military
training school for Central American officers in Ft. Benning, Ga.
Graduates of the school are believed to have been involved in the
murders of Archbishop Oscar Romero and six Jesuit priests in El
Salvador and are accused of widespread abuses of human rights, the
resolution says. Human rights activists say General Synod's resolution
comes at a "critical moment." The U.S. House of Representatives
appropriations committee is scheduled to vote July 9 on an amendment
to curb funding for the school. 

Supported "a comprehensive global ban" on landmines. The resolution
followed a request for action by the Evangelical Congregational Church
of Angola, one of the UCC's overseas partners. An estimated 70,000
Angolans have lost limbs in landmine explosions since the end of the
civil war in that country. Buried landmines in former war zones across
the world are killing or maiming thousands of civilians every year. 

Commended to local congregations mission statements on youth and young
adult ministries. A lively debate before the vote brought to the
microphones a number of youth and young adult delegates. 

Recommended new patterns of giving and receiving for funding church
ministries. The resolution was the result of study by the Stewardship
Council to find new approaches to giving that are both faithful and
effective. The text calls on pastors and leaders of the UCC to be
"aware of and enriched by many approaches to giving" and directs the
Stewardship Council to "continue to work on a comprehensive plan to
invite the whole church to faithfully give and receive in ways that
faithfully engage in God's mission [and] ensure the vitality of the
church." One approach suggested by the resolution provides for a
two-year testing period of giving through a special mission
opportunities catalog. Another would offer local church members the
option of giving directly to "Our Church's Wider Mission" - the UCC's
basic churchwide mission-support fund. 

Rejected a resolution urging local congregations to honor Martin
Luther King, Jr., by placing a portrait of the slain civil rights
leader in their churches. Some delegates said they opposed the idea
because it might substitute symbolism for real action against racism.
Bernice Powell Jackson, executive director of the Commission for
Racial Justice, said after the vote that her agency will send King's
portrait and a study of "all of his positions on social and economic
justice" to local churches. 

During the afternoon celebration of the UCC's birthday, delegates: 

Waved green paper leaves in time to offertory music - a contrast to
the white voting cards hoisted by delegates during business sessions.
Worshipers received the leaves as an offering from many of the 460
local churches in the UCC's Ohio Conference. Children and adult
members had cut out the leaves and written messages of welcome on
them. The leaves were inspired by the Synod's theme, from Revelation
22:1-5, which speaks of the tree of life: "And the leaves of the tree
are for the healing of the nations." 

Heard Fisk Jubilee Singers director Paul T. Kwami dedicate the
ensemble's afternoon concert to the Rev. James A. Smith Jr., who
retires in August after years of work in church-college relations with
the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries. Fisk University is
one of 29 UCC-related colleges and universities. 

Contributors to the writing, editing and production of this update
were William Winslow, Cliff Willis, Laurie Bartels, Hans Holznagel and
Andy Lang. We're also grateful to our volunteers: Beng Seng Chan,
Janet Kelly, Jo Siders. 

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